Iodine is a well-known broad spectrum antimicrobial agent that has bactericidal, fungicidal and virucidal properties which has been used for over centuries as an antiseptic. When iodine is introduced into an aqueous solution, free iodine, which provides the germicidal effect, is released. While generally inhibiting infective germs over the short term, the biocidal effectiveness of iodine is dependent on, inter alia, how long the infective agent is exposed to it.
To increase the effectiveness of iodine, it is normally combined with a solubilizing agent or other carrier to form an iodophor. Such iodophors, in effect, provide a reservoir of iodine from which small amounts of free iodine in aqueous solution are released over a period of time. This iodophor formulated for example, as a solution, soap, cream or paste, and are then topically applied to that area of a patient's body which is desired to be treated. Perhaps the best known of these iodophors is povidone-iodine, in which iodine in the form of triiodide is complexed with the polymer polyvinylpyrrolidone. An example of such an application can be found by reference to U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,259.
Polyiodide resins have proven to be as much as 1,000,000 times more effective than an iodine (I2) molecule alone. A large number of chemical, biochemical, and physiological studies have proven that the iodine added to microorganisms is irreversibly bound. This has the effect of devitalizing the microorganisms by damaging cellular proteins, lipids, enzymes, oxidation of sulfhydryl groups and other chemical pathways
Microorganisms carry an electrical potential energy on their surface. The polyiodide resin carries an electrical potential charge which attracts the microorganisms. The microorganisms with their negative electrical potential are naturally drawn to the iodinated resin particles with their positive electrical potential charge and vice versa, thus ensuring contact and devitalization. The iodinated resin releases the correct lethal dose of nascent iodine in less than about 3 seconds at a body temperature of about 98.6° C. or about 36.9° C.
The ion-exchange resin bead or particle is chemically bonded homogeneously with polyiodide of uniform composition throughout its interior. As nascent iodine is consumed more is continuously fed to the surface from the interior of the resin bead or particle.
The unique release on demand feature of polyiodide resin can be demonstrated by adding resin beads to the well of a depression microscope slide with a suspension of the highly Motile Ciliate Tetrahymena Pyriforms. When observed microscopically, individual cells maintain their motion while swimming in a solution with 2 ppm of iodine residual. However after a collision with a resin bead, their activity dramatically slows and within seconds stops altogether.
Bacteria, viruses, yeast, fungi, and protozoa are not able to develop resistance to iodine even after a period of prolonged exposure to polyiodinated resins. It is not expected that emerging new infections will develop resistance to iodine, as historically there has been no development of resistance to iodine, as well as polyiodinated resin.